Leadership Skills, the Dark Side - Essay Example

LEADERSHIP SKILLS Name Institution Leadership skills Through the assistance of others to accomplish a certain chore, leadership demands for certain skills. Honesty/ Integrity Leaders are the base entity of the organization. For essential leadership one has to be honest. Such leaders should bare trust, dignity and respect which would facilitate their execution of tasks. The organization under such would have smooth flow of events. The leader should in turn bare the cross of the organization through accepting mistakes, maintain high ethical standards and does not claim credit. This involves the leader to be truthful to his/her employees. The organization views him as transparent; through this he is able to establish confidence among them. This strengthens the organization by ensuring that there is someone to turn to incase of any eventuality. In recent past leaders have shown high levels in not being credible. It is thus unethical to be selfish though it cannot be eliminated fully. Integrity is the most held dear quality of a leader. Ethics crowns honesty, truthfulness, integrity, fairness, prudence and respect. Ethics hence shape up leaders into well credited and mentor leaders in society. A good ethical standard is recipe to running of a successful organization. In the past corruption and unethical behavior dominated businesses because of the mammoth profits it resulted into. The collapse of Doctom (2000) led to accusations of various banks for rigging doctom stocks’ floatation and benefiting the investors. Companies involved include: First Boston, Quattrone, CFSB, Bear Stearns, Morgan Stanley and Solomon smith. The entire American democratic process and media was soiled by unethical behavior which saw the benefit of corrupt lobby groups. The credibility of such leaders is therefore not compromised. Leaders ought to show great level of credibility for relevant future. Apart from the doctom case there is also the collapse of Eron accounting and consulting firm dubbed Arthur Daley which was found shredding vital documents. This case involved several employees i.e. auditors and other principal players received heavy jail sentences. The credibility of such leaders is lowered with common clients to the firm scampering for fear of major setbacks. The collapse of such firms leads to diminished investor confidence this leads to firing of innocent employees and large loss of business capital (Kouzes & Posner, 2007). The dark side Leadership which is unethical to the society exhibits instances of toxic leadership skills. Toxic leadership is characterized by fraud, corruption racism and nepotism. The benefits of such leadership are enormous but are short lived with heavy penalties accorded to them. In today’s world such leadership faces more challenges due to measures that have been to place to counter such. Leadership skills if natured well and used toward the targeted firm would impact tremendous results. Hence a leader should in this event practice good ethics which he learns from others and through life long experience. A leader should therefore have the self-awareness for the development of his leadership skills. Inspirational/motivational Leadership requires the will to energize others to perform their tasks as required. A motivational leader thus is characteristic of having perceptual ability, presence and preparation ability. These are hence vested upon knowledge, skill, commitment, effective communication ideas, and the energy to move or influence. People are the most significant asset of the organization. Motivation is therefore an important aspect of leadership which involves how he handles his subjects as potential beings, who together will facilitate the running of the firm. Apart from this it is the process that inflates the commitment and desire to work. In many organizations given the right encouragement dosage and significant amount of incentives would better the outcome. Inspirational leadership mainly comes from proper judgment of the followers basing on their abilities, contributions, performance, and character. An organization mostly in today’s world recommends that the employees unleash their hidden potential which would hike the success of an organization. Most firms do not recognize this due to being greedy for money. It is therefore essential to motivate employees especially during this competitive world and rapid alterations, technologically. In regard to this the performance will increase in a more positive way. A de-motivated environment is less aggressive which lowers the performance of the firm. The firm would hence experience conflicts, boredom and characterized by absenteeism. Employing motivational skills would be highly essential to make the firm alive, co-operative and flexible at work. A leader thus has to explore all avenues to sort on how to motivate his collogues. He has to consider various factors towards employee’s job security, promotions, recognition and appreciation, payment, personal autonomy, supportive leader, attractive working conditions, equality, empowerment and good working relations (Forster, 2010). Apart from this, a company such as Google which is known around the globe employs various techniques to inspire its employees. It therefore encourages creativity and innovation. It thus makes this possible through allowing the employees at least a percentage of their time to visit and critically analyze their ideas and projects. The notion was structures by Brin gained from University. Employees thus would consult various associated fields to view the viability of their innovations. Running simultaneously with other organizational ethics and processes the venture has led to a vast innovation of products and notions. In the recent past it was witnessed that its market share value inflated to $130 billion. Apart from this Brin won Men of the year awards in 2005. Therefore an organization apart from providing the relevant culture and employed the right personnel, has give incentives for the innovations to escalate the organizational goals and finally keeping the ideas intact (Foster, 2010). In a working environment there are various persons involved, which means all sorts of characters differently satisfied. It is natural that what motivates one does not necessarily do the same to the other. Therefore one may assume this. Hence one will be a leader of a divided group. To cultivate a highly performing organization the leader should exploit various theories that try to explain how to motivate individuals. Such as content theories (Maslow, Herberg, Alderfer and McClelland) which suggests that work motivators or rather universal needs which are safety, social, physiological, self-actualization and esteem needs (Foster, 2010). Research in Australia showed that most of the people in 1990s were less satisfied with their working conditions. This was due to adverse temperatures, ill air quality, poor lighting, lack of enough privacy and destructions due to noise pollution. As a result it led to industrial disputes in countries such as Australia. The change of physical working environment is the lee way to motivation creating some worth on the employees. It is evident that staff motivation involves satisfaction and dissatisfaction working hand in hand. Dissatisfied employees are always be craving for more, greed is thus a great motivator (Foster, 2010). Competence/credibility Organizational leaders present themselves credible for the betterment of the organization. It is hence associated with experience, practical knowledge of the field, good decision making skills, good reputation and good track record. Therefore possessing such one is entitled to use it with purpose to drive the organization into prosperity. This is the vital valuable leadership skill. This is the ability of the leader to be with honor. No leader can have merits without being competent. One should be able to resource himself and being able to have leadership skills. Hence he should be able to know how to make someone execute a particular task (Pp. 56). In content theories when one accomplishes one need the urge to attain other needs calls. However, these theories assume that individuals have the same wants contrary to the ever changing world. They also focus on these needs as a tool for improving the work force and motivator. As a leader one should create a good working atmosphere and understand various needs of his employees, use the potential of each individual to shape the firm to prosperity, use the wants to design a performing firm and invite ideas from various people for a good understanding of the work place. This in turn creates an efficient working force building ones competence. Intelligence Most leaders are intelligent in a variety of ways; this is due to different kinds of intelligence one owns. Thus intelligent leaders depicts certain traits such as resilience, tenacity, lack of pretentiousness, tremendous self confidence, self-belief, Machiavellian cunning when need arises, courage and competiveness. With these facet’s one is a potential organizational guide. All leaders should be intelligent in some way. Intelligence is a vital enzyme for productivity in an organization. This is the speedy understanding of situations. However, leadership does not require one with very high IQ but a good understanding of what is being dealt with. Through this the leader is able to as an additive to the staffs’ efficiency. Leaders are not born but are made and perfect on what he has at hand. This enables him to take full advantage of his potential and make channel it towards making success to a firm or organization. Thus leadership is a combination of genetic programming obtained from parents, Physiological development and life experiences. There are many forms of intelligence such as creative, logical, linguistic, emotional and spatial intelligence. These forms of intelligence can be improved during life to generate good leadership elements. Emotional intelligence which affects about all forms of intelligence is vital for leadership. Absence of this form causes career derailment which is mainly caused by difficulty in changing and problematic social life. This makes it hard for an individual to work under pressure and manage stress effectively. Thus the more intelligent a leader is the more employees he will influence. Such leadership involves relaying hard predictions and plans for a new strategy. Skills used to strategize all plans would show high level of mental calculative skill playing a big role. Leaders who posses spatial intelligence is very good with visual images i.e. pictures and images. Hence they can put puzzles together that is put necessary organizational strategies and labor force to work co-operatively. Therefore for a leader is powerful in directing the staff towards the oriented goal. On the other hand linguistic intelligence makes the individual good in playing with words. Influence and persuasion from such leaders is a flash light. This is very handy especially when dealing with stakeholders. Logical intelligence deals mainly with ones potential to reason i.e. making connection of scattered pieces and making them one in the organization. Hence the leader easily solves problems, which is very handy in organizations. Furthermore creative intelligence makes leaders able to model their own organization in their mental pictures and then transmit it into the real world. Organizations will benefit highly on attainment of leaders who posses albeit multiple intelligent traits. Leaders should hence be aware of the types of intelligence and to perfect on them if in possession. Intelligent leaders such as Captain Marvel, a successful Australian cricket captain which he led to win the prestigious Laureus World sports team (2002). The team was awarded with the Sports industry of Australia in 2003. He came into power in 1997, though some opposition from ex-players and board officials. At first the team faced difficulties in picking up, through fast learning the captain picked up. He then instilled faith and ability in his team. He encouraged his team to wear the green cap as a strong emotional symbol as heroes. Apart from that he used all techniques where he used people from other fields to motivate the team. Creating a good and healthy relationship between the individuals, he became manager of each individual knowing each of their potential through dialogue. Marvel devised mechanism on how to communicate, motivate and team building through critical and well planned thinking abilities. His role in leadership marked a tremendous change in the team, leading it through 16 straight wins in international cricket and world cup (1999). Marvel showed a great skill of intelligence in his field (Kouzes & Posner, 2007). Gordon Cairns for instance, structured a technique to create self awareness. He thus used a mirror where one would observe himself from another angle and perspective. Hence this led for alteration of ones behavior from what was viewed negative to the better side i.e. leadership journey. This method is employed to make one realize oneself and see how others depict us. Apart from this method there are other methods that have so far emerged such as behavioral event interviews, ECI-U evaluation, 360 degree feedback and reflective best-self judgment. Good communication skills Communication is an essential part in all organizational activities. Therefore to facilitate such one has to have to appeal to hearts as well as minds, build healthy relationships via dialogue and the potential to walk and talk i.e. lead by example. The leader should hence be a good listener, provide feedback, sending messages and maintaining congruent non-verbal. For proper running of the firm the leader should have the ability to detect dishonesty among individual employees. Thus one should have the knowhow of various no-verbal signs of lying. As observed in videotapes of Bill having oral sex with Lewinsky did not contribute to any instances of sexual relations. There clear signs of lying in the evidence provided such as movement of the eyes, facial expressions (wrinkling), diminished eye contact, leaning forward, rubbing the nose and earlobes, clenching and unclenching the fingers, sweating and unexpected laughter. It is very hard to control such signs unless learnt over time. With sophisticated technology it is now very hard to go away unpunished. Lie detectors designed mainly to detect lies are used. Leaders are now presented with more simple helps which help them in their activities. Honesty is of great importance to a leader such that it acts as an attraction to investors and other stakeholders. Communication is an important skill that a leader should posses. For instance when looking for a senior position in a firm, good communication skills is one of the skills recommended. Though other firms will demand for outstanding and many more but it narrows down to the skill. This non-technical skill is sought for in many organizations because recent surveys show that most graduates lack it. Most organization require for frequent communication between the employees and senior managers. With the technological advancement there is need to keep thorough communication between the customer and the firm. This is particularly meant to foster good relations with the customers and to also keep them. Frequents communication promotes knowing customers needs and their expectation of the future products. Cultural difference being a hindrance one has learned to interact with the diverse culture in the business field. Most learning institutions are now more concerned with enhancing communication skills among the students which would be of great benefit in the market. Reference Forster N. 2010. Maximum Performance: A practical guide to leading and managing people at work. Kansas: Cheltenham: Edwards Elgar. Kouzes, J. M. & Posner B. Z. 2007. The Leadership Challenge. Fourth Edition. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Read More